Bed-bottom frame.



Pafented Sept. 5, I899.

iJNrrn S'ra'rns FRANCIS M. TINKHAM, OF SPRINGFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS.

BED-BOTTOM FRAME.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 632,47 8, dated September 5, 1899.

, Application filed September 16, 1898. Serial N0. 691,084. (No model.)

To (LZZ 1072 0170 it may concern:

Be it known that I, FRANCIS M. TINKHAM, a citizen of the United States of America, residing at Springfield, in the county of Hampden and State of Massachusetts, have invented new and useful Improvements in Bed-Bottom Frames, of which the following is a speciformly stretching and supporting a mattress of the class described on its frame; and the invention consists in the construction and arrangement of the various parts of the mattress-frame and said mattress supporting and stretching devices, as hereinafter fully described, and more particularly pointed out in the claim.

In the accompanying drawings similar reference-numbers refer to like parts in the various figures.

Figure 1 represents in perspective a mattress-frame embodying my invention, showing a wire mattress supported thereon. Fig. 2 is a front view of one of the swinging supports for the movable end bar, one of the side bars being shown in section on line 2 2, Fig. 1, anda section of an end bar being shown thereon. Fig.3 is a side elevation of one of said swinging supports and of. one end of a side bar, showing an end bar in section on said support. Fig. a is a sectional view of the support and of a portion of the side bar shown in Fig. 3.

Referring to the drawings, the mattressframe consists of two side bars 3 3, two end bars 4 and 5, the one, 4, of which is rigidly secured to the side bars at or near one end thereof and at right angles thereto, the other end bar, 5, being supported on said bars at or near the opposite end thereof in a position parallel with said bar 4- on two saddles 6, pivoted on the side bars and having a swinging movement thereon in the plane of the lengthwise dimension of said side bars, said end bar 5 being rigidly secured to said saddles 6. The end bar 4: may be supported on the side bars 3 in any convenient manner. The method shown herein consists of two posts 4;, prefangle-iron end bar 5.

erably of cast-iron, suitably formed to receive the angle-iron end bar, which posts are secured to the side bars by bolts :13 It, the end barbeing secured to said posts by screws or bolts. On each of said end bars 4 and 5 is a fiat clamp-bar S for firmly securing thereto the ends of a piece of woven-wire fabric 7, I

constituting the mattress or a support therefor. These clamp-bars may be of any other of the well-known forms used commonly for this purpose. Said fiat clamp bar or strip of metal 8 is secured to the end bars 4E and 5 by screws 9, passing through it and entering suitably-screw -threaded holes in said end bars, and between each of these bars or strips 8 and the side of the end bars the opposite ends of the mattress are clamped, as shown. Said end bars are preferably made of L angleiron, as shown, and are so located on the saddles 6 that'the sides of said end bars will lie at substantially forty-five degrees to the surface of the mattress-body7. The said saddles 6 are made,preferably,of cast-iron, having an inverted- U -shaped ba'se,between the opposite depending sides 10 of which one end of one of the side bars 3 is received. Near the lower edge of said sides a pivot-pin 12 passes transversely through them and through the side bar, as shown in Figs. 2, 3, and at, and the endsthereof are slightly upset to retain it in its place. lVhen the sidebar 3 is in proper position between the said depending sides 10,

sufficient space is leftbetween the upper side of the bar and the underside of said U -shaped base to permit the saddle to swing freely on its pivot-pin 12 for a certain distance before the under side of the base will strike on the top of the bar. On .the'upper side of said base and integral with it are located the two uprights 13, united by an inclined web 14:, the angle 'of which is substantially the same as that of the face of the inside section of the Thus said inside section of the end bar 5 and said web 14: will be substantially parallel. The tops of the up rights 13 are formed to fit the inner V-shaped surface of the end bars, and a bolt 15, passing through the inside section of the end bar 5 and through a hole in the web 14:, secures said end bar to the upper ends of said uprights on the adjoining ends of the side bars 3. A short web 13 is cast 011 that one of the uprights 13 lying next to the center of the bed, the top of which web is level with the tops of said up rights and aifords an elongated bearing for the end bar, extending beyond the base of the saddle 6. This web furnishes a sufficiently wide bearing for the end bars to prevent any perpendicular flexure of the end bar between its end bearings on the widest bed, and obviates the use of a lighter end bar than would otherwise be possible, and serves, further,to make a more rigid connection between the saddles and said end bar 5. The said web 13 may also be cast on said posts 4, if desired. The end bars being formed as above described, the nut on said bolt 15 is easily accessible'from the outside of the saddle, and the head of the bolt lies far enough below the level of the mattress fabric 7 to be out of contact therewith at all times.

The forward edge 16 of the inverted-U- shaped base projects somewhat beyond the point of union of the uprights with said base,

and through this portion 16 thereof a screw 17 passes, the lower end of which bears on the top of the side bar 3, as shown in Figs. 2, 3, and 4. The upper end of said screw is squared to permit the application of a wrench thereto for turning it. By turning said screws to the right or to the left the saddles 6 are rocked on their pivot-pins 12, and the end bar 5, supported on the uprights 13 of the saddles, is caused to move toward or away from the end bar 4, and the mattress fabric '7, clamped to said end bar, may thereby be stretched between said end bars by the turning of the screws 17 in one direction, or the tension under which said mattress fabric is supported between said bars may, by turning said screws in the opposite direction, be released. Each of said saddles constitutes, in effect, an elbow-lever having its fulcrum on said pivot-pin 12 onthe side bar, its horizontal arm receiving the operating-screw 17 and its Vertical arm supporting one end of the movable end bar 5. To apply the mattress fabric to the frame, the end bar 5 is swung as far as possible toward the bar 4 by turning out the screws 17 in the saddles 6 until the under side of the base of the saddle strikes the top of the side bar, in which position the fabric is clamped to said bar 5.

If at any time the mattress fabric becomes so stretched that it cannot be put under proper tension by the manipulation of the screws'17, the saddles may be swung toward the end bar 4 and the clamping-strip 8 loosened and the slack of said fabric taken up. It is obvious that both of the end bars may be hung on said elbow-levers and be operated as described relative to the end bar 5.

While the L angle-iron shown in the drawings is the form which is best adapted to the purposes of this construction, that particular form is not an essential element of the invention, and other forms may be used and still be within the scope of the invention. Furthermore, the side bars 3 of the mattressframe are shown in the drawings as consisting of two metal tubes; but two wooden bars, such as are commonly used in frames of this class, maybe substituted therefor, if desired.

Having thus described myinvention, what I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

A bed-bottom frame comprising two side bars, two end bars of angle-iron form in crosssection one fixed to said side bars and one movable thereon, two elbow-levers pivoted on said side bars, two of whose arms extend at right angles to said last-named bars and receive thereon said movable end bar, bolts securing said bar to said arms, the second arms of said levers extending opposite the sides of said side bars, screws passing through said second arms against said side bars, whereby said lever supported end bar is swung toward and from said fixed end bar, and means on said end bars for securinga bedbottom thereto, substantially as described.

FRANCIS M. TINKHAM.

Witnesses:

WM. H. GHAPIN, K. I. OLEMoNs. 

